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Bruce came to personal finance writing the old fashioned way: he didn't have much money, but wanted to do cool things. Clearly, some creativity was in order. From traveling around Europe to paying for a wedding, moving to New York to raising a child, he's figured out how to have fun without spending much money. In the process, he's also learned a few things about how politics and economics can help (or hurt) middle class finances. As DailyFinance's senior features writer, Bruce gets to combine his two favorite things: learning how the world works and explaining what he's learned to his readers.

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Between this summer's battle over student loan interest rates and President Obama's recent move to give colleges economic grades, the high price of college has moved front-and-center in the news. On Thursday, we looked at some of the reasons that tuitions have been skyrocketing, and what you can do about it. Dylan Matthews, at The Washington Post's Wonkblog, has been doing some outstanding work on this, and today Jaeah Lee and Maggie Severns, writing for Mother Jones, offered a solid follow-up. Their focus is on one specific spending item -- salaries -- and their articles look at what happens when college presidents and celebrity faculty members are paid like rock stars -- and given the kinds of perks that are usually associated with Wall Street.

In a lot of ways, trends in higher education mirror the rest of the economy, in which a few top-level executives have seen their salaries rise exponentially, while lower-level workers have seen their pay and benefits shrink. A recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education laid this out, noting that, while faculty members have had modest salary growth in the last few years, these gains have been swallowed up by a 3 percent inflation rate. In other words, when it comes to bottom line spending power, faculty members have experienced between a 0.8 percent and 1.4 percent drop in their salaries.

But if rank-and-file faculty members are making less money, top-level administrators are making a lot more. On average, Lee and Severns report, college presidents make 3-4 times as much as their average professors. And, with an ever-increasing number of non tenure-track and part-time instructors filling the ranks of the faculty, it's not surprising that that gap is getting even wider.

Lee and Severns also offer a list of outrageous perks paid to college administrators. While strange, the list of low-interest loans and staggering retirement/severance bonuses is likely to be depressingly familiar to anyone who has watched Wall Street for the last few years. And the justification for these bonuses is also familiar: like their Wall Street brethren, these top-earning academics were paid outrageous sums because, in the words of one university administrator, "In basic financial terms, the return on investment is remarkably high."

Fair enough, but one question remains: is this return on investment, which is usually measured in terms of fundraising and building projects, accruing to students? Or are America's students borrowing a record amount of money to pay for a fundraising staff whose efforts have little to do with improving educational outcomes?

One solution is to take advantage of some of the loan forgiveness opportunities that are already out there. The military, the federal government, and state governments offer dozens of programs that will wipe away at least part of your debt, in return for a few years of service. Most are tied to specific, in-demand professions in areas such as health care, law enforcement, and education. but others -- like the military, the Peace Corps, and AmeriCorps -- are open to people from a variety of majors and disciplines.

American Student Assistance, a nonprofit group that helps people manage their student loan debt, has produced a free list of occupation-based loan forgiveness programs. It's worth a peek -- even if you don't plan to become a firefighter, policeman, speech therapist or social worker.

Several programs will allow you to structure your repayment of federal student loan debt based on your income. For example, if your loan payments are more than 15 percent of your discretionary income, you may qualify for income-based repayment, under which your monthly payment calculated based primarily on what you earn, and after 25 years of payments, any remaining money owed gets forgiven. Other programs, including income-contingent repayment and pay-as-you-earn forgiveness, are pegged to different income levels.

Nobody wants to die, go through bankruptcy, or suffer a total and permanent disability. However, if you experiences one of these life events, your federal student loans will be discharged. The banks behind private loans, however, may still go after your cosigners in an attempt to recoup their losses.

Assuming you're not a too-big-to-fail bank, the idea of going deeper into debt in order to make more money may sound counterintuitive. However, in many fields, a graduate degree can vastly increase earning power. "What's It Worth," a publication of Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce, ranks graduate programs by their return on investment. Not surprisingly, degrees in medicine, the social sciences and hard sciences top the list.

Ultimately, student loans are like any other debt: Getting out from under them requires that you understand your situation and keep your focus on repayment. In this regard, the best advice is also the most obvious. First, be aware of how much money you owe and what the interest rates are on each of your loans. Work on paying off the highest-interest loans first, while making minimum payments on the rest of your loans. As you pay off each loan, take the money that you were spending on it and roll it over onto your highest interest loan.

But, while discipline is good, it's also important to reward yourself. Paying off loans is a big deal: give yourself a nice present every time you put one to bed!

True, many college presidents are overpaid. But typically, the highest-paid person on the campus payroll is not the college president. It's the men's football or basketball coach. Meanwhile, the adjuncts and other non-tenured instructors who are actually teaching the classes are paid next to nothing. It's disgusting.

CEO\'s and other heads of big business make what - about a hundred times each of their employees? Why do some people need SO much money? They have more than enough to live well and pass it along to inheritance. There are so many pigs; it\'s sad.

Every time I learn what a college president makes I just cringe. You know that it is going to cost much more for your children to attend a college because they have to make up that salary of the big wigs! Same with all large companies. We end up paying double what something is worth just to pay the big wigs! And for what, so they can travel around the world, live in mansions, drive big cars or cars and homes that are furnished to them. Meanwhile the students parents are living pay check to pay check and hardly making ends meet because of the cost for their child or grandchild to attend a college. It is even the same for the local community colleges. Really sad when you end up figuring it all out. And the "big shots" from the auto companies are living in huge homes, sending their children to the best schools, never worring about where their next dollar, food, heat for their home, will come from. I hate to see winter come on because I can hardly afford to heat my small home anymore, but these people probably have all the extras and never have to worry! And for what? Just what does a president of a college do? Or the CEO of a large company, what do they do? Does anyone really know? I doubt it, these people can give us a line of baloney and most people will believe them! Me ...... not so much.

My son has to pay on average 150.00 dollars for a college course book. Really? 150.00 dollars. These colleges have turned into a greedy money making buisness. And our kids will pay the price in the long run. Colleges are supposed to be a place of higher learning, they have turned into a wall street bank.

Agreed.....I had to loan money to my grandchild for books this semester! A ridiculous amount but for this grandchild to attend class it had to be done and I really didn't mind but get upset at the amount these higher ups in the colleges make for doing what?

I would rather see overpaid teachers than CEO\'S. How much would the cost of some of the things we use on a daily basis go down if billions of dollars weren\'t given in bonuses each year to people who don\'t even produce the product. You never see Hyundi or Kia or Toyota in the paper boasting on the 35 million dollar bonus given to the CEO of the company and they offer cars with more bells and whistles and a better warranty and assembled in America at a cheaper price with union labor.

You can blame presidents or CEOs, but their pay is usually a small portion of the total. It's more like the co-dependent relationship between legislative branches and government workers; you support me and I'll approve above-market wages for your position.The entire education system is broken and needs to be re-evaluated, from textbook cost to professor salaries to all the infrastructure. The bubble has been caused by government financing that makes college attainable for all, but affordable for few, with a decades-long yoke of debt and no direct relationship to an appropriate career.IF public education were held to the same standards as for-profit colleges, there would be published rates of employment for majors with likely pay scales. Based upon this info, up front, students could make much better choices about where they go and what they take.

And over-paid hospital CEOs are a major reason why health care is so expensive. The guy who runs Mt. Sinai in NY gets paid a staggering $4.5 mil/year - and his executive team isn't far behind. This is atrocious and immoral - and why the health care industry takes advantage of sick, scared and desperate people.

CEOs of all kinds are overpaid. Who really needs to make more than $500,000 a year?